Red Dead Redemption 2 Is In Legal Trouble With The Real-Life Pinkerton

Probably not the best people to mess with.

Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive did an exhaustive job making sure that Red Dead Redemption 2 feels like a living, breathing world that players can inhabit believably and naturally with people, places and things that don't feel stiff or video game-y. Unfortunately, they may have done too good a job, because they're getting in trouble from what used to be one of the biggest private security firms in the world. The firm, called Pinkerton, was represented in the game without the permission of the real-life Pinkerton, so now the company is “willing to discuss a lump sum figure” as compensation.

According to The Blast, the people at Pinkerton characterize their firm, in a cease-and-desist letter to Rockstar and Take-Two, as one that "in the 1870s...worked with law enforcement to apprehend famous criminals across the country.” They believe that the way Pinkerton is represented in the game “is likely to blur the distinctive character and tarnish the reputation of Pinkerton’s famous trademarks.”

Rockstar respectfully disagrees. They say that "“historically accurate videogame set in the Wild West in the late 1800s" and, as such, “historical references are woven into the fabric of the game at every level.” To put the nail in the coffin, they say that “the game’s reference to the historical Pinkerton National Detective Agency and its agents is but one of a myriad of ways that Red Dead 2 accurately portrays the historical Nineteenth Century American landscape.” Watch one of many portrayals of Pinkerton in the game below and decide for yourself: